I saw a comment on the internet not so long ago that really made sense to me and has stuck in my head, although I don’t remember where I saw it so can’t give credit to anyone. It said if you are not composting you are not growing organically. We’re committed to organic farming but have a big learning curve to be successful, starting with how to make compost. Active hot composting not only adds organic material to your garden but also adds healthy soil microbes which help to feed your plants. Luckily there’s some very good information on the web about the soil food web and on how to compost. We started with a small pile and had success at turning grass clippings and chicken manure into rich soil. We’ve since expanded to building some large compost piles which we’re going to add to my hugelkulture beds before next planting. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact on our veggies.
The beginnings of a compost pile 
watering the pile 
The pile is building!!! 
Almost done while the guys are turning two older piles 
Doesn’t the compost look good 
Two piles built 
Piles are wrapped with tarps, starting temp 29 degrees C 
After 24 hours temperature has risen to almost 60 degrees C
While we were busy building compost piles, Arthur took a trip to Daria, a small community about 15 minutes down the road, to sell eggs. He came back with a surprise, 75 oyster mushroom logs. These mushroom logs are produced and distributed by a Fiji-China development project promoting the use of Juncao grass as a soil stabiliser, a mushroom substrate, and for animal fodder . When Arthur and I were in Nadi last May we stopped by the project headquarters and had a tour of the facility and farm. While we didn’t get any logs at that time we did get some Juncao stalks which we’ve planted as a living fence around our chicken yard. We were hoping that there would be a mushroom growing training session in our area but nothing yet. So it was a real surprise when Arthur brought the logs back from the agricultural office in Daria. We contacted the Juncao project headquarters right away and they sent us instructions on how to ‘plant’ the logs and how to care for them. Hopefully we’ll have mushrooms soon.
Surprise 75 mushroom logs 
Digging the trench 
sorting out the logs 
planting the logs 
Removing the plastic before planting 
All 75 logs planted 
covering up the logs with fine dirt 
watering the logs 
Covering the logs with a poly tunnel 
Covering the poly tunnel with a shade house
An update on the coconut seedlings – much of February was spent planting the 250 coconut seedlings. Between Arthur, Charlie, Thomas, Naca, Siuta and Vilikesa, the seedlings were all planted before Siana and Marc arrived. What a relief and now we can start planting the citrus and bananas between the coconuts. But wait – remember we asked for 500 seedlings but only got 250 – 250 more seedlings were delivered 2 days ago.
